Waitomo Caves Things to Do

The other two caves that can be visited are Ruakuri and Aranui Caves.

On photos they surely look more impressive than the main cave – and photography is allowed.

I have not been in either of these two caves as I thought I had spent too much money on the Glow Worm Cave already. So the following information is from write-ups on the official website and other sources on the internet.

According to Maori legend, Ruakuri Cave was discovered 400 to 500 years ago by a young Maori hunting for birds. He was attacked by wild dogs outside the entrance. Thus the name Ruakuri, “rua” meaning den, and “kuri” meaning dog, so: dogs’ den.

Ruakuri is the largest one of the three main caves and was rediscovered by James Holden in 1904. Obviously it is possible to abseil 100 metres into a cave named Mangapu Cave. Surely not for me ;-))

The cave was re-opened in 2005 and is wheelchair-accessible. It has a spiral entrance, and you also see glow worms and underground waterfalls.

According to the caves’ website, Ruakuri Cave is New Zealand's longest guided underground walking tour. Allow 2 hours for a visit.

Aranui Cave is the smallest cave of the three main ones and located in the Ruakuri Scenic Reserve, a five minutes drive (2 km) from the main cave. It is named after Ruruku Aranui, a local Maori who discovered the cave in 1910. (In other sources I have read 1911.)

It has a natural entrance and is the smallest of Waitomo's three main caves. Unlike the Glow Worm and Ruakuri Caves it is a dry cave without a river running through it, and there are no glow worms. Instead there are resident cave weta which are endemic New Zealand insects looking a bit like huge long-horned grasshoppers (but are flightless and nocturnal). Allow 45 minutes for a visit.

If you have time and never been in such caves, you might consider a combo ticket.

In total there are about 300 limestone caves in the Waitomo region.

This is the highlight of the tour – when you slide through the dark, the ceiling of the cave lit up like a night sky lit up by millions of stars.

The stretch of river/cave visited is not very long, so the guide pulls the boat along the metal ropes attached to the walls of the cave several times.

A guy on my tour asked why he travelled along the same route several times, and the guide said that was in order to see the glow worms glowing from different angles.

This surely is only part of the truth. If they threw the people off the boat after five minutes it would be difficult to charge them NZ$ 46 for the tour…

The Cathedral is the highlight of the walking tour. It is on the lower level of the Waitomo Cave. The acoustics in this 18 metre high enclosed cavern is impressive. You will hear that New Zealand’s mega-famous opera diva Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has sung in this part of the cave and was more than delighted with the purity of the sound.

The tour starts at the upper entrance of the cave, and after the Cathedral you walk along a low narrow passage to the so called Tomo. This is a deep limestone shaft – and part of the Waitomo Caves’ name. This 16 metre vertical shaft was created by an ancient waterfall. Today it only flows in heavy rain.

Other formations are the Catacombs, the Pipe Organ and the Banquet Chamber. They are in the upper – and dry - part of the cave.

You will see relatively small stalactites and stalagmites. You might know that they grow extremely slowly. There is no absolute timeframe about the speed of growth of stalactites and stalagmites as it depends on the concentration of lime in the water, the CO2 content of the water and in the cave, the amount of the dripping water, and the temperature. Also the shape of the formation plays a role. A rough measure is 8 to 15 millimetres per 100 years, meaning a stalactite of one metre is about 10,000 years old – but not exactly.

Sinter tubes can grow relatively quickly but once it becomes a stalactite the speed is reduced dramatically because the same amount of material is dropped on a bigger space. The speed of the matching stalagmite is different again.

You cannot access the caves on your own but on guided tours only.

These guided tours of the Main Cave include a 250 metre walk through the cave and a boat ride through the glow worm grotto.

Tours depart every half hour from 9am to 5pm. Additional tours at 5.30pm between 31 October and Easter Monday, as well as at 8am between 26 December and 28 February.

The tour takes about 45 minutes.

Photographing is not allowed in the Main Cave while it is allowed in Ruakuri and Aranui Caves. Of course, you are never allowed to use flash anywhere near glow worms, and you should be absolutely quiet around the insects to not disturb them.

I cannot say that I found the old man’s jokes of our guide very funny. But you might be lucky to have a different guide – or lucky enough to share this unfunny guy’s humour ;-)))

Phone numbers and email contact in my General Tips.

My friend and I had planned to do the Black Labyrinth tour. Unfortunately it had rained several inches the previous night, and the cave was flooded. They were able to schedule us on a walking tour of the Ruakuri Cave instead. It certainly was not the trip we had planned, but it was very interesting (and dry). Be sure and check the web site for all the adventures offered by this company.

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There are a bunch of ways to see the caves and glow worms, but the best way is to use Black Water rafting company. They take you out to the middle of nowhere and you abseil down a canyon-like cave until you reach the underground river. There you pick up your inner tube and ride it down the rapids in the caves. Awesome, awesome adventure. It can be a little tough to come back out of the cave because you're walking upstream but it's well worth it.

This is a excellent activity to do - There are different rafting activities also available. Sometimes I was scared but I am really glad i did it. My boots where full of water and I was tired at the end. They supplied bagels and soup after to warm you up.

Waitomo glow worm caves ý Besides the usual limestone cave formation, the cave contains the New Zealand glow worm which emits a light to attract flying insects as good. A guided tour boat ride through the darkness reveal the thousands of glow worm lights hanging from the cave ceiling is truly spectacular.